Monday's agriculture website of interest: NATIONAL AGRICULTURE LIBRARY

Today's website of interest for agriculture is The National Agricultural Library. This library is one of four national libraries of the United States, with locations in Beltsville, Maryland and Washington, D.C. It houses one of the world's largest and most accessible agricultural information collections and serves as the nexus for a national network of state land-grant and U.S. Department of Agriculture field libraries. The National Agriculture Library's mission is to advance access to global information for agriculture.

Cow Art and More May newsletter

Check out the May edition of the Cow Art and More newsletter. In addition to finding out about new work, there is also a link to a Steak Diane recipe and advice on choosing the right size painting for a room.

Friday's website of interest to art enthusiasts

Today's website of interest to art collectors is AskART: the Artists' Bluebook. Many people are familiar with finding car values with a "blue book". This website provides the same service for two and three dimensional art pieces. AskART is dedicated to the creation and maintenance of the world’s most comprehensive centralized database of artists. In this capacity the company does not buy, sell, auction, or inventory artworks, or act as representative for any artists.

The website provides digital images, biographical documentation, book references, auction data, and the opportunity to engage in open forum dialogue about artists. In 2007 AskART expanded to include auction data, images where available on artists worldwide. The content features painters, sculptors, and illustrators ranging from our early artists to modern urban expressionists.

A conversation with Lynn Bishop: Part 4

Where do you get your inspiration?

Life! Something I see - usually animals or people - grabs me emotionally and creates the urge to capture and express that emotion in a painting.

Picture credit: "Oshosh", charcoal on paper

Just added, an ART RESOURCES page on Cow Art and More

In order to help customers get the most from their art purchase, an Art Resources section has been added to Cow Art and More. This section includes directions on caring for art purchases, cleaning art and decorating advice. We also welcome thoughts and ideas from others on what you would like to see!

A conversation with Lynn Bishop: Part 3

What is your technique?

My paintings are realistic/representational, done in oil paints, often mixed with Winsor & Newton Liquin, which dries overnight, facilitating reworking. I have a poor visual memory, I love detail, and I love to portray an "instant in time" so my paintings are based on photos I've taken. For most of my career I used a non-electric slide viewer to look at slides of the subject as I painted, but I've now entered the digital age and view images on a laptop computer set up near my canvas. Although I rely on photographs as the basis of my paintings, I freely move subjects around and combine images from multiple photographs. In one large triptych of horses, I combined images from more than 2 dozen slides.

Picture credit: "Team Plus One", oil on canvas Click here to learn more about this horse oil painting

Monday's agriculture website of interest: BEEF, IT'S WHAT'S FOR DINNER

In celebration of "May is Beef Month," I chose to link to the Beef, It's What's For Dinner website today. This site is funded with money from cattle producers nationwide to provide the public with information about beef and the cattle industry. The site explains how to shop for beef, including information on the different cuts available. The site also includes recipes on preparing beef, even for those on a special diet.